Hi!

Figured the new year would be a good time to get some new voices for my XF.  I’ve had a Motif for about nine months now and really like the hands-on experience, plus as a blind user I appreciate the consistent reference manual.

Before owning a Motif I had an expanded Roland Fantom-X.  It might be apples and pears, but the Fantom-X was definitely my favorite for drums and certain orchestral sounds.  I’ll also have to learn to be more economic with my user voices (Roland’s expansions load to their own banks and leave user patch banks alone).

Anyway, drums should be easy to beef up.  I’m not sure about orchestral sounds.  Looking at the Motifator shop there seem to be two options available for classical music:
* Complete Orchestra: http://shop.motifator.com/index.php/voice-libraries/complete-orchestra-for-motif-xf.html
* Symphonic XStrings: http://shop.motifator.com/index.php/voice-libraries/digital-sound-factory-symphonic-xstrings-voice-bank-for-motif-xs.html

Please let me know if there are other decent libraries that I missed.  Garritan may be an alternative, but there’s no demo available and one might as well get the full library for PC (which I don’t want to do because I like the Motif’s single-box approach).  I got Peter Jung’s symphonic dealie with my Motif but like neither the programming nor the sample data.  I’d be curious to know if the two libraries linked above do a better job, especially since they’ll be taking up a significant amount of space (and frankly Roland’s much more modest SRX-04 expansion still wins for me).

In particular, I’d be interested in better pizzicato strings than the XF’s onboard samples.  Do either of these two libraries come with their own pizzicatoes?  Also, how do the strings in these libraries compare?  Complete Orchestra has benefits for both storage space requirements and versatility.  I’m about as amateur as it gets so I don’t need top-notch sounds, but given that both libraries get good reviews I’d like to make an informed decision.  Are those 450 MB of strings really that good?  Do the brass and woodwinds of Complete Orchestra really add something beyond putting the internal ROM sounds in a new light?

Hey, i can’t speak for the Motif libraries, but as for Garritan, i’ve considered buying it (GPO4) myself, but the demos on their site were disappointing and it hasn’t received very positive feedback overall.

Maybe consider buying a strings-specific VSTi-library? They have the most common articulations.

If you want to try out a free voice library suggest you see an issue of the Yamaha Music Production Guide for the Motif XF Flash Memory Content download.
The ‘Symphonic Orchestra Library’ by Dr Peter Jung features 128 User Voices, 34 User Waveforms and 336 MB Samples (979 Keybanks).
Have attached the manual as well.

README.pdf  (File Size: 309KB - Downloads: 1194)

Hi!
When I got my motif XF I was expecting the orchestral sample libraries to be on par with what I had on a Kurzweil PC3 back then. There is some serious orchestral potential in the Kurzweil and I dreamed about that kind of sounds with a Motif workflow.
I bought the 100 bucks Complete Orchestra. The reason why you don’t see any customer review is because they won’t let buyers tell how bad it is. My review never got through. Most sounds have such ridiculously bad samples and programming that barely anything is usable. Old 8mb sound banks (Roland, Kurzweil) are far superior to this collection of unusable sounds. So my advice would be stay away from Complete Orchestra. Whoever worked on this project has no idea how composition or arranging for orchestra works.
The easiest way to sketch orchestral music with a motif is to hook it up with a Muse Receptor loaded with good sample libraries.

Is anyone happy with some classical/orchestral sample libraries for motif?